


shark in the pool

by mothicalcreatures (laelreenia)



Series: The Tragedy Still Strikes Fluff AU [5]
Category: Wolverine and the X-Men (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Casual use of Mutation, College, F/M, Fluff, Prosthetic Limbs, Swimming Pools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 03:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8472886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laelreenia/pseuds/mothicalcreatures
Summary: Iara and Julian meet up at the pool as kind of an impromptu date.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written Iara or Julian before, and I haven't read too terribly much with them either, I hope I've done them justice.

Iara loved swimming. She’d always loved it, even before the whole shark thing, and she was very glad that her university had such a good pool.

She wasn’t on the swim team, despite the fact that she was probably one of the top swimmers at the university. It seemed like too much effort and too much explaining to do. Her university didn’t take issue with her being on the swim team with her mutation, but she knew other schools might try to make it out like her mutation gave her an unfair advantage during meets.

It didn’t matter terribly much to Iara in the long run, it wasn’t like she had her sights on making a living out of being a swimmer. The Olympics were not in her future. Mutants were only allowed to compete in the Olympics if their mutation did not interfere with the event they were competing in. So Iara wouldn’t have been able to swim, but she could probably do gymnastics, if she were so inclined.

 

At the current moment, Iara had just surfaced from swimming a 50 (two laps) underwater. She hadn’t done it holding her breath, but rather breathing through her gills.  

“Um excuse me ma’am? Ma’am?” It was the lifeguard.

Iara turned her head, she blinked a few times shark like eyes reverting to her human ones. “Are you talking to me?”

“Yes. You aren’t allowed to swim underwaters ma’am.”

“I have special permission,” Iara said.  

“You’re only allowed to do a single lap of underwaters, and even then, only during swim practices.”

Iara sighed. He must be new, most of the regular lifeguards knew she could breath underwater. “Look, kid, I appreciate the concern for my safety and the rules of the pool, but I really do have special permission. I can breath underwater.”

“Oh, uh… are you… are you the shark girl?”

“Yeah, that’s me.” Iara flashed a tight smile showing off pointed teeth .

“Oh okay, you’re fine then, sorry.”

Iara gave a brief nod and slid under the water again, letting certain shark traits such as her gills and eyes come to the surface again. She swam another 50 underwater, before pausing to grab a drink from her water bottle.

Julian arrived while she was resting on the wall.

 

“You’re gonna join me today?” Iara teased as Julian set his towel down.

“My class was cancelled so I figured why not. Do you have goggles?”

Iara shook her head, “I don’t need goggles, they might have some in the office though.”

Julian groaned, “Fine, I’ll just walk back to the office then.”

“Will you get me a kickboard while you’re at it?”

“Yes, I will get you a kickboard.”

Iara grinned at Julian. “Thanks.”

Julian returned with a pair of goggles and a kickboard, both floating. Iara plucked the kickboard out of the air when Julian floated it down to her. And Julian used his telekinesis to put the goggles on as well before he let go of his hands, leaving them on top of his towel, and jumped into the pool in the same lane as Iara.

“Race you to the other side?” Iara said, only half joking.

“That’s not even fair. You’re a shark, I can’t compete with that, no one can compete with that.”

“I don’t know, I think Katie Ledecky could probably give me a run for my money.”

“Katie Ledecky is an Olympic gold-medalist. I am your boyfriend, a political science major who does not and has never swam competitively. I also happen to not have hands,” Julian said, raising one arm out of the water.

Iara opened her mouth.

“If you say ‘I’ll go slow’, I am going to make one of my hands fly over here to punch you in the face. It’s not a fair race if you let me win.” It wasn’t a genuine threat, but it was… intense, and Julian hoped that Iara knew him well enough to realize that he was joking. He was just bad at joking sometimes.

She did get and she rolled her eyes at Julian. “I’m going to be using the kickboard so I’ll already be going slower anyways, but I won’t _intentionally_  go slow. So do you want to race?”

Julian gave an overdramatic sigh. “Fine.”

Iara laughed. “Get ready, three, two…”

 

Iara still won.

Julian was a decent swimmer, but he was no match for Iara, even when she was only kicking. Iara had been swimming since she was little and now she had the added power of shark on her side.

“I win,” Iara said, grinning.

“What a surprise, I never would have imagine. We should get you a medal.”

Iara laughed and splashed Julian, who in turn, grabbed a ball of water with his telekinesis and dropped in on Iara.

“You want to head into the hot tub?” Iara asked.

“Really? I just got in,” Julian said.

“I mean if you want to swim more go for it, but the chlorine’s bothering my gills.”

“Were you doing underwaters?”  
“Yeah.”

Julian nodded. “Alright, let’s swim back and get in the hot tub then.”

“Like I said, you can stay and swim more if you want.”

“Nah, I came here to spend time with you,” Julian said. “We haven’t really had a whole lot of time together because of midterms.”

“True enough,” Iara said, before pushing off and heading back to the far side of the pool.

Julian followed a moment later.


End file.
